Monday, October 04, 2004

Item 1: Rumsfeld admits no link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida. BBC.com reports that "In front of an audience in New York, Mr Rumsfeld was asked about connections between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden. 'To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two,' he said."

Item 2: In the debate Bush tried to score points against Kerry by snapping that he "forgot about Poland." But it seems the Poles would just as soon be forgotten. Poland announced today that they were reducing their military forces in Iraq from 2,500 to 1,500 by January with total pull out by the end of 2005.

Item 3: BBC.com is reporting that four American soldiers have been charged with the murder of an Iraqi General who died in custody last November. None of the soldiers charged are commissioned officers. The defendants are two Chief Warrant Officers, a Sgt. 1st Class and Specialist.

Item 4: NPR's senior political analyst, Daniel Schorr, reported today on "All Things Considered" that voter registration in areas with large minority and poor populations is so much higher than expected that voter registration officials are being overwhelmed.

3 comments:

Item 1: Yeah! I saw that. He has since come back and said that his comment was "misunderstood". What a butt monkey.

Item 2: I posted this same point on my site (did you see my comment about our soon to be number 2 ally, Italy? Hee, hee). What a hoot. Great timing, to boot.

Item 3: There have been a number of these soldier murder charges in a variety of cases. Do you think there is at least a little "deflect the blame" going on here? Especially as it seems that only enlisted and lower level officers charged in any of the cases? Smells of elderberries to me.

Item 4: I have heard these stories as well. Hopefully it is as extensive as is implied in the stories and hopefully enough will actually vote to offset the probable large numbers of invalid ballots that will be claimed in certain areas (a la Florida).

...and here is how these items are likely to be perceived by the average voter, thanks to Republican spin and cowed reporters.

Item #1: Old news. Even Bush himself has conceded that he was misled by faulty intelligence, and we haven't yet found the hard evidence linking Iraq and 9/11. Yes, saying there's no link between Hussein and Al Qaeda is more significant, but that's a "nuance" that we cannot expect the Security Moms to understand. The point is, the world is safer without Saddam Hussein.

Item #2: When our allies succumb to the sensationalist, liberal media and cave into terrorism and abandon Iraq, it becomes even more imperative that we stand united and strong. And this really just goes to show that the U.S. was right to go it alone. It's not like we needed our allies anyway--I mean, we all know that the whole "Coalition" thing was really just done to placate the Jane Fonda types who don't trust our country.

Item #3: "A few bad apples." This kind of US-bashing story gets too much press. Spreading this kind of propaganda hurts US interests in Iraq--don't you support our troops? Also, this guy that some of our troops "allegedly" manhandled was an Iraqi anyway so really... hey, what's on ESPN?